Official Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD & BDP-51FD Owners Thread / Vs 1.32 DTS-HD MA - Page 1012

It appears your optical drive is dying....

That's kind of what I thought. Is there a fix for this, or is a new player a better option?

Depends on what you call easy...  Pioneer service centers can repair it if it is the laser diode.  They replace the entire drive.  The repair is somewhere in the $400.00 range.

 

It can be a DIY repair, but the procedure requires some software and a service remote plus parts so it probably ends up costing you more than sending it to Pioneer.  It can also be a difficult DIY repair depending on your skills, but not impossible

 

Do you have older blu-rays that load OK?  I'm asking because it seems that some of the new releases have had some problems in this machine as well as other machines.  My BDP-05 does not like Ice Age: Continental Drift but works ok with everything else with no problems.

 

 

The short answer, if it were my machine, would be to buy a new machine if your sure the drive is failing.

Thanks for the response. All of my purchased Blu-rays load just fine, with the exception of the recently released Peter Pan. The rental discs that have been giving me issues recently are all from the "Boardwalk Empire" series.

It sounds like the player is not really worth repairing. I can put that $400 toward a brand new one. The timing is just a little bad, that's all.

Tim, go back and read the last couple pages. One of my 05s and charly921's are doing the same thing. Unsuccessful attempts at fixes have been discussed.

 

 

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you repair or replace.  If your machine is working with other Blu-rays discs then for all practical purposes, the drive is ok.

 

What I think maybe happening with some of the newer releases maybe an authoring issue or problem.  The introduction of Cinavia copy protection seems to support a multi branching scheme in the way a disc is authored.  Anecdotally, it seems that some Blu-ray players are having a problem with playback of some of these discs; some of the BDP-05/51's being in this group.  For instance the well regarded Oppo is on the list from Sony as having a problem playing the new Total Recall with out audio drop outs if the Oppo is configured to bitstream playback.

 

I would try the usual things like clearing the memory, maybe try cleaning the drive.  I just think this is more of a disc issue than the machine based on what you are saying.  Then again it is Blu-ray and these Pioneer machines have not had a great history.

+1 fully agree with what you are saying, good post. If the player is playing other Blu-ray discs then it is unlikely to be the drive. I suspect it is time for a firmware update, the last one being a long time ago in April 2012 although there does not seem to be much happening in that direction, I check the European site regularly. Whether a firmware update would cure all the problems with these new multi branching schemes, considering the age and ability of these players is debateable

Interesting, seeing the above post in relation to your other posts and your comment on Ice Age 4 just thought I would try it out, we have the BD but not played it on the 05. So sitting here Sunday morning decided to give it a try. Fully expecting some kind of problem it took a while to load and all the preceding rubbish but then up came the main menu, selected the options and it is playing away quite happily in the background. Arn't these players strange, every one of them seems to have a different personality.

 

Yes, it is Rick. This is the first disc my 05 has had any trouble with ever. Ice Age: Continental Drift will load on occasion but most often the disc loads, spools up and plays the 20th Century Fox search light sequence, then the screen goes black and the disc stops in the machine. Other times, it will load and play on our BDP-05 without a problem although it does take a long time to load as you have experienced. A quick google search shows trouble with some Sony players as well as the problem in general with this disc freezing.

 

I have an Oppo BDP-83 in our dedicated theater and the same Ice Age: Continental Drift disc plays fine sans a long load time.

 

I had rented Total Recall a few weekends ago only to find repetitive audio drop outs with the Oppo BDP-83 and no problems on the BDP-05, both set for bitstream playback. Sony has issued a suggestion to set the Oppo for LPCM as a remedy for the problem and is replacing the disc if you send it back to them.

 

I find it interesting that Ice Age: Continental Drift and Total Recall both have Cinavia encoding. I don't know if this is coincidence or an unhappy occurrence of serendipity.  Of course both the BDP-05/51 and the Oppo BDP-83 do not have the hardware to support Cinavia so you would expect immunity form this new form of copy protection plague if it is the problem.

 

Anecdotally, I've heard or read about Brave, The Walking Dead, and Pixar Shorts Film Collection Volume 2 having problems on various machines.  We had a rental copy of Brave and had no problems on our Oppo or the BDP-05 however.  It just seems like there is some kind of authoring problem on newer releases effecting various machines and not just the Pioneer BDP-05/51.

Hi all. I have mine for sale here if anyone is interested in a very clean perfectly working unit.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1457463/pioneer-bdp-51fd-excellent-condition

Thank you, Brian

As your successful play of Ice Age 4 seemed a bit intermittent, I have tried it a couple of more times here and each time it has loaded and played successfully, I commented on the time to load but tend to forget that is normal with these players and some disks can take a fair time well over a minute and in some cases more than 2 minutes. Our main player is now an Oppo 93 and it loads fairly quickly in that so it tends to be very noticeable if the load time is inordinately long

As Cinavia as far as I know is low level frequencies watermarked onto the audio track then I don't think this would be the issue. However I do think your last point highlighted above is very valid and I suspect this may well include even more various methods of anti-piracy measures all of which affect not just the 51/05 but more recent models from Sony and Oppo just to name a few. I have not tried Total Recall yet I have the original Arnie version and so have not bothered, particularly with the published problems, so at the moment can't comment on that or some of the issues with other discs. Skyfall is out here on Monday, it will be interesting to see if there are any problems with that.
Edited by Rick R - 2/13/13 at 3:36am

Does anyone have issues playing back "Skyfall"? It does not play after the 20th Century Fox splash screen appears...

 

I won't have a chance to try it until this week end.  But that's the same behavior I had with Ice Age: Continental Drift, another recent 20th Century Fox offering.

 

What works a very small percentage of the time for me with Ice Age: Continental Drift was to remove the disc, clear the memory, shut the machine down, restart the machine with out the disc, clear the memory again, shut down the machine again, start the machine and load the disc and come back in about 5-10 minutes.

 

I was wondering about "Skyfall" doing this on the BDP-05/51's from my recent experience with Ice Age: Continental Drift and Total Recall.

Ice Age and Skyfall are both Fox discs... Not sure about Total Recall...

Same thing for me. I'm trying what b curry suggested now.

I got it to work but I'm unsure if it was from clearing the cache 3 times or not. Instead of waiting for the 20th Century Fox splash screen to finish after my 3rd cache clearing, I quickly hit FF. After a few seconds I could hear the preview for the latest Die Hard movie but had no video. When that finished I tried skiping ahead to no avail and then tried Top Menu. I'm now at the Main Menu for Skyfall.

Just finished watching Skyfall. Great movie by the way. It seems the clearing of the cache isn't the answer, at least not for me. I shut her down and tried to load the disc again to no avail. 20th Century Fox splash screen came up and nada thereafter.

It could be I just happened upon a lucky fix for mine (51FD) by hitting FF during the splash screen so I'd be interested in knowing if you can try that, Jon S.

Either way, it looks like I'll be getting a new player. She's done well for all these years but I want something "Fox" proof.

I plan on watching my copy of skyfall this weekend, but I will pop it in this evening and make sure it will play properly on my 51, Worst case I have to watch it on my Ps3. I will report back this evening.

Ok I just popped it in and mine loaded up just fine. Went past the fox screen and straight to die hard preview. Everything else came up fine leading up to the skyfall menu.
Edited by Sonyboy - 2/14/13 at 2:20pm

 

Sad state of affairs...

 

I really think there is some sort of authoring issue with these new disc's that's making it difficult for these players to keep up.  It's too coincidental that it's 20th Century Fox titles.  But your right, it's an aggravating situation to say the least and there are better machines for not very much money available.

I have done the card swap, no joy. I reformatted the original card, replaced the "buda" folder and put it back in the player. I then reloaded the firmware update and as I write this the player still will not play Disney discs and BBC productions. I am watching Avatar, and it will play Harry Potter. Sooooooooo, I guess I will be shopping for a new BD player and relegating the Pio to DVD/CD duties. Is there a possiblity that this player has developed a region issue.

Cheryl

 

FWIW, reports of play back problems for "Skyfall" are starting to pop up on various Internet forums with players coming from Sharp, Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, etc...

 

Maybe we'll see a firmware update.

I had also tried clearing the cache, swapping cards and every other thing I could think of and was still occasionally getting the "unknown disc" error. As a last resort I followed the directions somewhere in this thread on opening the player up and cleaning the lenses.
Since then I have had 1 issue with Cowboys and Aliens but that was resolved with a replacement disc. Everything else I've played through it has worked fine..even former problem discs.
For all those having playback issues who don't want to ditch their player, this worked out really well for me. Might be worth a shot.
I'll try to find the directions and repost if anyone wants to give it a try. Only took about an hour to strip it down and put everything back together.

Found it...


Here's the procedure to clean it:






I used a lens cleaning wipe..the kind that come in the small packets that you clean eyeglasses with. Be gentle..
Edited by vader1515 - 2/15/13 at 8:30am

I noticed that these specify the 05, would they be appropriate for the 51?

Cheryl

The Pioneer BDP05FD and BDP51 are basically the same players with some cosmetic differences and an upgraded audio section on the BDP05FD...

I think you mean upgraded video section on the 05 since it has a better analog component video DAC for those not using HDMI. The audio is identical in both. From post#7 of this thread:

Most of the other differences are cosmetic.

Yep..sorry. I did this on my 51.

 

If you don't want to take the box apart you can pick up a disc based cleaner from Radio Shack, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

 

You can usually find and pick one up for between $10-$20's.

I was able to watch Skyfall last night (the first half, anyway) on my -51FD but only after some initial issues. The first time I loaded the disc, the player chugged and chugged then the "Unkown Disc" error came up. I then ejected and re-inserted the disc. The player chugged a little again, then loaded just fine. To summarize, I am having issues with the following discs:

Boardwalk Empire
Peter Pan
Skyfall

I agree that it seems like more of a firmware issue than a hardware issue. Hopefully we get an update soon.

Kinda funny how there seems to be a rash of "unknown Disc" errors happening.
Got a few here and I didn't waste anytime selling the machine on eBay.

It appears the life expectancy of the 51 is about done.

Good luck.

Having just read of the problems with Skyfall, thought I had better check it out now rather that wait for the 'official' viewing tomorrow night!

As others have found disc locked up after the Fox splash. Tried again and hit FF twice when the flash screen appeared. Picture froze, went blank, '51' display read "87 PLAY" and a couple of seconds later the movie (or trailer others mentioned) started.

So I think I am good to go for tomorrow.